One of my new favorite books of all time...and one of the saddest. I never realized what a tragic character Eric, or the Opera Ghost, was. He just wanted to be loved. This does not excuse all of his behavior, but it does explain it. From his childhood, even his mother rejected him and despised him. I know that Christine is supposed to be the heroine of the novel and Raoul is supposed to be the hero. Yet, I found Raoul to be whiny, immature and just young- in the throws of a first love like all teenagers have. And Christine is also immature and unintentionally cruel. She leads him on and lies to this broken man until he is driven to commit rash acts due to a love that is only one-sided. Eric is one of my favorite tragic heroes and I fell a bit in love with him. He is so tragic and so sad that his last mention had me in tears.

On a non-literature note, this book should be read by anyone studying criminal behavior. It shows how you create a psycopath. You ignore and revile the child, make the teen a freak and isolate the adult. His perception of love will become confused with obsession and the object of his love will become a possession.